Colters' Gift

CHAPTER 35

IT was dark when the harrowing ride in the back of the Hummer came to an end. Lauren ached from head to toe from the accident, and being thrown in the backseat without care hadn’t helped her screaming muscles.

The back door opened, and she tensed when the two men dragged her roughly from the seat. Tears burned her eyelids when her ribs were jostled. Pain shot through her chest and abdomen, and for a moment she felt as though she couldn’t breathe.

It took a minute for her to realize where she was. Forced to stand on shaking legs between her two abductors, she tried to make sense of her surroundings. As they shoved her forward and her feet came into contact with hard pavement, lights turned on a short distance away, and then came the explosive sound of a jet engine starting.

They were at a regional airport, though it looked more like a privately owned airstrip, but it was clearly designed for commercial jets to land and take off.

The cabin door opened, sliding downward to reveal four steps leading into the plane. A figure loomed at the top of the steps, and through the haze of pain and fear, recognition seared through her mind.

Her stomach balled into a painful knot and her already tense muscles tightened automatically. A defensive gesture associated with the person standing and staring down at her as she was hauled to the bottom step.

Joel Knight met her in front of the open doorway, his eyes glittering dangerously. She recognized that look. He was furious and high on a power trip. It was a mood where he felt challenged and forced to prove himself to those around him. She’d learned to avoid him at all costs when he got this way.

He backhanded her without a single word. Her head flew sideways and agony flashed through her face. If the two men hadn’t been holding her arms, she would have tumbled to the ground. Tears leaked from her eyes and slid down over the duct tape still wrapped around her head and mouth.

She sagged precariously and Joel looked at her in disgust. Then he dug into his pocket, pulling out two ten-thousand-dollar wraps. He handed one each to the two men and then called over his shoulder into the plane.

“Come get the bitch.” Then to the two men he’d just paid, “Get lost.”

The two men didn’t waste any time. They dropped their hold on Lauren and she staggered to keep her footing as they took off for the Hummer.

A second later, Ron appeared behind Joel. She recoiled when Ron moved past Joel and put his hands on her. This wasn’t happening. She wouldn’t go back to her old life. Not that her current reality would bear any resemblance to the past. Joel had never treated her well, but he wouldn’t show any restraint now. He felt betrayed by her and he’d want revenge. He’d want to save face. Losing her had been a blow to his ego.

She’d walked out on him. She’d refused to recognize her good fortune in landing a man like him. He’d never forgive her for that transgression.

Ron hoisted her up and tossed her over his shoulder. As soon as his body made contact with her ribs, she screamed in agony. The sound was horrible, muffled by the tape over her mouth, but it was the sound of agony that couldn’t be disguised.

“What the hell did you do to her?” Joel demanded as Ron climbed the steps into the plane.

“Not a damn thing,” Ron defended.

Ron tossed her down onto the couch in the back of the plane, and she let out another garbled sound, nearly passing out. She couldn’t get enough air in through her nose.

“Be careful damn it,” Joel barked. “I don’t know what those dumbasses did to her. Swear to God if they touched what is mine, I’ll cut their dicks off and force-feed them to each other.”

“You’re not going to find out much until you get the tape off her mouth,” Ron said dryly.

“Give the order to take off,” Joel said tersely. “Then find me something to cut the damn tape off.”

Hysterical laughter bubbled in Lauren’s throat. He’d just nearly knocked her teeth out and he was pissed because the assholes he’d hired may have hurt her. Apparently only he was allowed to abuse her.

She rolled back against the couch when the plane started forward. Ron returned a second later, holding a knife out to Joel.

Joel pulled her over onto her belly and panic blew up. It was worse because she had no way to fight. She hated being pinned down this way. Hated it!

He sawed at the tape around her wrists and finally worked it free. Her arm flopped forward, falling over the edge of the couch, and her shoulders protested the sudden change in position. She moaned against the tape over her mouth and tried valiantly to keep the tears at bay.

Next he freed her ankles, and then he began working on extracting the sticky tape from her hair. She was surprised he didn’t grow impatient and just hack her hair off, but then her hair has always been something he liked and hadn’t wanted to change about her.

She braced herself to have half her skin and lips taken off when he ripped the tape from her flesh, but he was surprisingly gentle, working it a little at a time until finally it came free.

She automatically licked her cracked, dry lips. Then she pushed herself upward, refusing to remain in so vulnerable a position.

Joel assisted her, nothing forceful in his touch. It only made her fear him more, because she knew how quickly the pain could come. It was almost as if he liked to keep her aware at all times that he could do as he chose. He liked to follow tenderness with brutality, and then he’d always follow up pain with a caress.

“Would you like some water?” he asked, frowning at her appearance.

She nodded, not trusting her voice not to crack, and the last thing she wanted was to demonstrate her terror. She wouldn’t give him that satisfaction.

Ron appeared with bottled water, and Joel took it from him and carefully held it to her lips, refusing to let her hold it.

She drank greedily, closing her eyes as the cool liquid soothed the rawness of her throat.

When Joel took it away, she lifted her gaze warily, waiting for whatever came next.

Joel frowned. “What happened to you? What did those idiots do to you?”

Since he seemed concerned, at least on the level that someone had possibly damaged something he viewed as a possession, and he was exceedingly possessive of things that belonged to him, Lauren didn’t provoke him and instead played his game.

“They forced my vehicle off the side of a mountain,” she said in a low voice.

Joel’s frown turned to an all-out scowl. “They caused you to wreck?”

She nodded.

“Fucking morons,” Joel exploded. “They had explicit orders to deliver you to me. Alive. How the hell could they possibly be certain you’d survive a plunge over the side of a mountain?”

She lowered her gaze as questions bit at her lips. She wanted to ask him if he was the idiot since he didn’t seem to get that she wanted nothing to do with him. But she was hurt and the last thing she wanted was to enrage him to the point he got violent. At the moment, he seemed genuinely concerned—or at least inconvenienced—over her injuries.

“Where are you hurt? I heard you cry out when Ron carried you onto the plane.”

“My ribs,” she said slowly. “Hurts to move. Hurts to breathe. I’m worried they’re broken.”

Joel swore and then bellowed for Ron to return. When the man appeared in the sitting area, Joel said, “Call ahead and have my personal physician waiting for us when we arrive. Give him the rundown on Lauren’s condition and tell him she needs pain medication and X-rays.”

Ron nodded and disappeared once more.

“I’m not happy with you, Lauren,” Joel said coldly. “Look at me when I’m talking to you!”

Swallowing back the rage building in the pit of her belly, she slowly lifted her gaze to meet the eyes of a demon.

“You wouldn’t be in your present condition if you hadn’t been stupid and tried to walk away from me. No one walks away from me. Do you understand that? There is not a place on this earth you can hide from me. I will find you. I’ll never stop looking. And I’ll kill anyone who helps you, who is with you, who interferes in any way. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“You’re mine, Lauren. You belong to me. You’re my property. I make all the decisions regarding your well-being, your life, your very existence. The sooner you accept that, the more peaceful your life will become.”

Oh God. She couldn’t bear it. She wanted to scream Noah’s and Liam’s names and keep screaming until they came for her. They had to find her.

“Now get down on your knees and prepare to apologize,” he ordered.

Her eyes widened and she stared at him in horror. His face reddened with rage at her reaction and before she could defend herself, his hand was in her hair, twisting the strands in his fist. He yanked her from the couch and she landed on the floor, the jolt sending pain racing through her midsection.

“You don’t learn,” he ground out. “Your defiance will bring you nothing but misery. I guarantee it, Lauren. Now get up on your knees.”

He let go of her hair, his hand going to the fly of his pants. Tears sliding endlessly down her cheeks, she pushed herself upward until he cupped her chin in his merciless grip.

She closed her eyes and forced herself out of her body, to a place where Joel couldn’t hurt or humiliate her. She focused on Noah and Liam and their love for her.

Joel might control her body, but he’d never control her heart or her mind.

For the men she loved, she could and would endure anything Joel forced on her. She just had to hold on and do whatever it took to survive until they came for her.